Cobbers

Mates on a mission

Five years on, Bush talks up Iraq victory

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President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he had no regrets about the unpopular war in Iraq despite the ‘high cost in lives and treasure’ and declared that the United States was on track for victory.

Marking the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion with a touch of the swagger he showed early in the war, Bush said in a speech at the Pentagon, ‘The successes we are seeing in Iraq are undeniable.’

With less than 11 months left in office and his approval ratings near the lows of his presidency, Bush is trying to shore up support for the Iraq campaign, which has damaged U.S. credibility abroad and is sure to define his legacy.”

Clitoral Economics

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Huffington Post’s Barbara Ehrenreich has a way with words:

“With all the talk about how to stimulate it, you’d think that the economy is a giant clitoris. Ben Bernanke may not employ this imagery, but the immediate challenge-and the issue bound to replace Iraq and immigration in the presidential race-is how best to get the economy engorged and throbbing again.

“It would be irresponsible to say much about Bush’s stimulus plan, the mere mention of which could be enough to send the Nikkei, the DAX, and the curiously named FTSE and Sensex tumbling into the crash zone again.

“In a typically regressive gesture, Bush proposed to hand out cash tax rebates-except to families earning less than $40,000 a year.

“This may qualify as an example of what Naomi Klein calls ‘disaster capitalism,’ in which any misfortune can be re-jiggered to the advantage of the affluent.”